BlackBerry, the company formerly known as RIM, officially launched its new operating system and two newhandsets at a press event in New York today. One device that wasn't mentioned during the main presentation was BlackBerry's struggling, oft-forgotten tablet, the PlayBook.

We've looked at the PlayBook twice before, once at its initial release back in April of 2011 and then again eighteen months later in October 2012. The PlayBook was released in a state that could best be described as "unpolished." However, our 18-month revisit showed a tablet that had matured considerably, gaining functionality and smoothing out the rough edges.

Florence Ion

There were rumors floating around prior to the BlackBerry 10 launch that the PlayBook would get a software update to the new operating system, and these rumors were officially confirmed by BlackBerry today. Details are sketchy at this point, without any hint of a date.

Also unconfirmed is whether the upgrade will be software-only, or whether the PlayBook will receive a spec bump. The fastest currently-available hardware features a dual-core 1.5 GHz Cortex A9-based Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage. Given BlackBerry 10's heavy reliance on smoothness and the "BlackBerry Flow" as selling points to the new operating system, along with a much-increased emphasis on apps and video content, a bump in RAM to at least match the newly released Z10's 2GB seems likely.

Lee Hutchinson
Lee is the Senior Technology Editor at Ars and oversees gadget, automotive, IT, and culture content. He also knows stuff about enterprise storage, security, and manned space flight. Lee is based in Houston, TX. Emaillee.hutchinson@arstechnica.com//Twitter@Lee_Ars

Also, I'm pretty sure the Playbook getting updated to BB10 was confirmed a long time ago. Kind of disappointed that we didn't get a release date. BlackBerry (formerly RIM) has an opportunity to prove they are committed to BB10 and their hardware if they do a good job with the update in a timely manner.

I may be wrong, but I feel like you would have to be obsessively pro-BlackBerry to stick with them at this point. My friend offered to sell me a Playbook a while back for around $50 after he upgraded to an iPad, and even the frugal part of me said "No way." I would say it's an uphill battle for BlackBerry, but I think it's more akin to scaling a mountain.

I may be wrong, but I feel like you would have to be obsessively pro-BlackBerry to stick with them at this point. My friend offered to sell me a Playbook a while back for around $50 after he upgraded to an iPad, and even the frugal part of me said "No way." I would say it's an uphill battle for BlackBerry, but I think it's more akin to scaling a mountain.

It always depends of your needs. I had bought a Playbook last spring when the price dropped at 200$ and liked it for a few months until I wanted to have other applications and got myself a Nexus 7.

I gave the Playbook to my dad and he's perfectly happy with it, all he wants to do is check his e-mail, calendar and contact list and the occasional web browsing.

I wanted free Angry Birds (I don't use the HD versions, regular looks good on 7" tablet) so Android was the way to go for me :-)

I may be wrong, but I feel like you would have to be obsessively pro-BlackBerry to stick with them at this point. My friend offered to sell me a Playbook a while back for around $50 after he upgraded to an iPad, and even the frugal part of me said "No way." I would say it's an uphill battle for BlackBerry, but I think it's more akin to scaling a mountain.

It always depends of your needs. I had bought a Playbook last spring when the price dropped at 200$ and liked it for a few months until I wanted to have other applications and got myself a Nexus 7.

I gave the Playbook to my dad and he's perfectly happy with it, all he wants to do is check his e-mail, calendar and contact list and the occasional web browsing.

I wanted free Angry Birds (I don't use the HD versions, regular looks good on 7" tablet) so Android was the way to go for me :-)

Yeah, I don't see why you'd have to be 'obsessively pro-blackberry' at $200.

Seriously. How hard/expensive can it possibly be? My sister (against my advice) got our mother a Playbook for Christmas. It mostly serves her needs, but I knew she'd want Netflix on it. I guess, at some point, Netflix claimed they weren't going to build an app for it. I don't know how much is there to build, really, but thanks a lot, guys.

I may be wrong, but I feel like you would have to be obsessively pro-BlackBerry to stick with them at this point. My friend offered to sell me a Playbook a while back for around $50 after he upgraded to an iPad, and even the frugal part of me said "No way." I would say it's an uphill battle for BlackBerry, but I think it's more akin to scaling a mountain.

You need to be obsessively pro-Blackberry to find value in the Blackberry Playbook...

Let's get real. At the low end, Apple sells 16 GB iPad 2s for $400. To move up to a 32 GB model, you have to move up to the Retina Display model, which is $600. For a 64 GB model, we are talking $700 (all prices in $CAD).

Looking at the Blackberry website, 16, 32, and 64 GB models are priced at $150, $180, and $220, respectively. If you wait for the frequent sales that Playbooks have become known for over the past year and a half, you can fairly easily obtain those same models for $100, $150, and $200, respectively.

The 64 GB Playbook is literally half the price of the entry level iPad with 16 GB. The value proposition is right there. You can get a 64 GB Playbook for the same price as the 16 GB Nexus 7. The Playbook is perfect for people who want an affordable tablet with solid hardware, don't want to, or can't, live in the cloud, and can get along with competent core productivity and entertainment apps (email, word and spreadsheet processors, video and music player, and web browser), without the horde of third-party apps available on other platforms.

In simpler terms, if a person finds value in trading off app selection and screen size for storage and price, there is no reason they wouldn't value a Playbook.

You need to be obsessively pro-Blackberry to find value in the Blackberry Playbook...

Let's get real. At the low end, Apple sells 16 GB iPad 2s for $400. To move up to a 32 GB model, you have to move up to the Retina Display model, which is $600. For a 64 GB model, we are talking $700 (all prices in $CAD).

Looking at the Blackberry website, 16, 32, and 64 GB models are priced at $150, $180, and $220, respectively. If you wait for the frequent sales that Playbooks have become known for over the past year and a half, you can fairly easily obtain those same models for $100, $150, and $200, respectively.

The 64 GB Playbook is literally half the price of the entry level iPad with 16 GB. The value proposition is right there. You can get a 64 GB Playbook for the same price as the 16 GB Nexus 7. The Playbook is perfect for people who want an affordable tablet with solid hardware, don't want to, or can't, live in the cloud, and can get along with competent core productivity and entertainment apps (email, word and spreadsheet processors, video and music player, and web browser), without the horde of third-party apps available on other platforms.

In simpler terms, if a person finds value in trading off app selection and screen size for storage and price, there is no reason they wouldn't value a Playbook.

Except that the reason to get a tablet is to run apps, of which there are hardly any decent options for the Playbook. They may have tens of thousands of apps, but 99% of them are horrid. And I say this as a Playbook owner for over a year and a half. The hardware is fantastic, and the OS is pretty good, but without the apps, what does it matter? The only other option is to use the browser, which also is abysmal and is missing essential, basic functionality like search and bookmark editing.

In short, yes, it's great you can spend so very little on a tablet compared to a Nexus or an iPad.... but, whatcha gonna do with it without apps?

Here's hoping they port BB10 over to the Playbook very soon and some of these much needed third-party apps come to the Playbook. But unless RIM offers a newer tablet, these third-party apps are simply going to be phone-optimized apps running on a tablet - the very thing people bitch about with Android: big screen, with tiny, blurry apps running in the center of the screen. Yuck.

There are a fair number of decent games on the app world as well, like Angry Birds, Plants vs. Zombies, Cut the Rope, and Sonic, if that's your thing.

What I'm saying is if a person wanted a well-built tablet, valued internal storage capacity at a reasonable price, and they decided they could get by with those core apps and a 7" format factor, they could save themselves $200 to $500 (compared to an iPad). That's a good chunk of change.

For me, I picked up a 64GB when they went on sale for $300. I do most of my internet news reading on the thing, watch YouTube vids, and listen to Internet radio on the surprisingly (for the size) quality stereo speakers. My old job also required a lot of camp work in Northern Canada (arctic circle north) where decent internet connections are scarce (i.e., flaky satellite connection). Luckily I could fit a decent chunk of my music library and 4 seasons of South Park on my PB, which was extremely handy. I would have had to pay $400 more for equivalent capacity in an iPad.

I'm looking forward to BB10 on the PlayBook. As it is now, I love it. Email and Calendar are fantastic, and the web browser is great (flash support really is a necessity still for most online videos). I also have a ton of excellent games and apps. There are some notable apps missing that I'd like, but they aren't deal breakers. I use my PlayBook more than any other person that I know who uses a tablet, and its very enjoyable to use. The size makes it very portable too, and the free internet access from my BB phone via bridge is a great feature when there is no open wifi. BB10 will make it even better.

For getting into the game so late, at least it looks like BlackBerry knows what they're doing:

* Change your company name to the name everyone uses, so people can stop referring to you as "the company that makes BlackBerries" * Release reasonably sized phones with good specs * Cater to the mostly-ignored segment of phone buyers who still want physical keyboards (not that I understand this group of people, but they exist) * Actually do software updates on old hardware to keep your customers feeling like you still care about them (here's what Microsoft and the Android manufacturers have been failing horribly at)

Someone mentioned in a previous thread that the entire smart phone market used to be around 2 million phones per quarter. I don't see BlackBerry ever controlling a majority of the market again, but presumably they can be profitable with just a small chunk of it now.

Anyway, I'm glad the smart phone market is more interesting than the PC market.

Always amazes me people bash really good products, just because they don't happen to do all the pointless things they personally want it to do.

I have a playbook and it's the best purchase i've ever made.First thing i wanted was a small device, i have 3 laptops so if i want to do anything heavy duty, or on a 13 inch plus screen i don't see the point doing it on a tablet. The ipad was a total no go, cos it's far too big.

Next i wanted a device that could store and play most of my music collection. 64gb playbook for less than 200 dollars, with a really decent built in speaker? I couldn't believe my luck. 64gb ipads are nearly 5 times that much where i live.

The only other things i want from a tablet are youtube, a decent web browser, mp4 player, and the odd game or 2. This has all these things. And all work excellently. Plus it has bbc iplayer, tetris, need for speed, weather, and email reader built in amongst other things.

I'm no blackberry fanboy, i have never owned a blackberry phone in my life. I'm no apple basher, i have owned an ipod touch for about 6 years and absolutely adore it.

But i wouldn't swap my blackberry playbook, for a full sized ipad, if they were the exact same price. Never mind five times more expensive.

Trying to go to an Ipad after using a Playbook,forget it.It's like how do people use an Ipad when you have to always go out and into an app,such a pain.Well not with my Playbook,all you have to do is is swipe up and open another app,with Playbook's true mulittasking it's easy to do.If the BB phone is anything like the Playbook where the whole outside of the screen is also touch,well sign me up,love that feature.